Cognos Forum 2008 > Who Should Attend > Finance

Finance

No one in the organization is a better judge of value than a member of the finance team. And for any finance team that uses Cognos solutions, there’s no better value than Cognos Forum 2008.

From CFOs and finance directors, to managers, financial planners and financial analysts, Cognos Forum shows you how to get the most from Cognos technology and how to squeeze every last dollar of ROI from your investment.

You’ll learn new ways to streamline and automate your organization’s core financial processes. You’ll learn how to meet the demanding requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and IFRS with greater confidence. And you’ll have a chance to see powerful new products and solutions in action, such as IBM Cognos TM1 (formerly Applix TM1) with its unmatched abilities to analyze profitability and perform "what-if" scenario modeling.

Cognos Forum also offers invaluable opportunities for professional networking. At special events and breakout sessions designed specifically for finance, you can share ideas and experiences with finance experts, thought leaders, industry analysts-and your peers.

Breakout Sessions

Here are just a few examples of the many sessions of special interest to finance. For a complete list of sessions, please refer to the Catalog of Sessions.

Improve Your End-to-End Budget Process
Sue Stevens, Business Intelligence Manager, Fairfield Residential
Hear how a business process management (BPM) deployment provides critically needed visibility and reduces the time needed to prepare budgets and reports.

Integrating IBM Cognos 8 Planning and IBM Cognos Finance
Justin Englund, Senior Financial Analyst, Freightliner
Nick Moore, BI Controller, Freightliner
Discover how to save hundreds of hours in manual preparation and consolidation by automating your processes.

IBM Cognos 8 Controller: Automate Consolidation and Deliver Compliance
Delbert Krause, IBM Cognos Director
See how the transition from a manual, Excel®-based financial consolidation process produces better data quality and accuracy, a faster close cycle, and more reliable results for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Success in Financial Performance Management
Brian Green, Manager of BI and Performance Management, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee
Hear a case study about the benefits of a performance management solution that delivers timely KPIs to executives and how to apply this to your organization

Measure and Maximize ROI in your BI/PM Initiative
David O’Connell, Senior Analyst, Nucleus Research
Learn how your organization can get the maximum value from your investment in business intelligence and performance management solutions.

Implementing Rolling Forecasts
David Corbett, Cognos Senior Director, Product Management
Learn how IBM Cognos TM1’s on-the-fly calculations make it an ideal platform for implementing rolling forecasts.

Networking Events

Speed Networking Titles

These dynamic, fast-paced and fun events to help you meet others who function in similar roles. Here are some examples of Speed Networking groups:

Planning Administrators
Cognos Planning Model Developers
Financial Systems Analysts
Controllers

Birds-of-a-Feather Lunch Topics

Sit down to a lively discussion with up to nine of your peers over lunch. Exchange challenges and success stories on topics such as:

Managing Financial Performance
Consolidation with IBM Cognos 8 Controller
Integration with IBM Cognos TM1
Strategy Management with Scorecarding & Dashboarding
Analytic Applications
Insights into Key Performance Indicators and Analytics for HR
Operational Performance Management
Migration to IBM Cognos 8 Planning

Do you bring co-workers to Cognos Forum? (1:23)
“It’s very valuable to bring as many of my team members as I can—from the functional side and the IT side—because Forum covers both…”
– Davis Shepherd, Manager of Financial Systems, Quiznos

Cognos Forum offers something for everyone in finance—in large companies with enterprise deployments, in small to medium sized business, and across a broad range of industries.